Cops: Handguns found after police chase

A driver and his two passengers had a loaded handgun early Friday when they led Fifth Precinct officers on an estimated five-mile car chase during which the suspects tossed another handgun to the roadway, Suffolk County police said.

Det. Sgt. Alan Feinstein declined to say how fast the driver was going as he led police from a stoplight on Montauk Highway in Patchogue to Old Stump Road and Montauk Highway in Brookhaven, a distance of more than five miles.

Police said in a news release Officers Frank Munsch and Michael Richardsen saw the driver, Darnell Lewis, 29, run a red light in Patchogue at about 3:15 a.m.

When they tried to pull him over, he sped off; several other police vehicles joined the chase, which ended at 3:19 a.m. when the car went off the road into a wooded area.

All three suspects tried to run away, police said, but were quickly arrested. None of the three suspects was injured, police said.

Police said they found a loaded semi-automatic handgun in Lewis' car, a 2003 Mitsubishi. During the chase, at Carman Boulevard and Montauk Highway in Brookhaven, another semi-automatic handgun, not loaded, was tossed from the vehicle.

Lewis, of 245 Cabota Ave., Apt. 2, in Copiague, was charged with unlawful fleeing of a police officer, resisting arrest, driving while intoxicated, criminal possession of a controlled substance, two counts of second-degree criminal possession of a weapon, and two counts of third-degree criminal possession of a weapon, police said.

Feinstein also said Lewis will be charged with several traffic violations.

Lewis' passengers -- Michael Hernandez, 22, of 32 Lenox Ave., Central Islip, and Mellody Williams, 21, of 137 N. 20th St., Wyandanch -- were each charged with two counts of second-degree criminal possession of a weapon and two counts of third-degree criminal possession of a weapon.

Hernandez also was charged with unlawful possession of marijuana.

The three will be held overnight at the Fifth Precinct and are scheduled to be arraigned Saturday at First District Court in Central Islip.

Police said the investigation is ongoing.

Anyone with information is urged to call the Fifth Squad at 631-854-8552 or call Crime Stoppers anonymously at 800-220-TIPS.